The present invention relates to an information viewing apparatus, a control program and a controlling method, and specifically relates to such an information viewing apparatus that is provided with a display section, onto a displaying surface of which a touch panel is mounted, a control program that is to be executed in the information viewing apparatus concerned and a controlling method that is to be employed for controlling inputting operations conducted by using the touch panel mounted on the information viewing apparatus concerned.
In recent years, there have been increasing the number of users who employ such an apparatus that is provided with a display section, such as a tablet type terminal device, an Electrophoretic Display, an electronic book, etc., for viewing various kinds of documents, such as a material, a book, etc. The abovementioned apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as an information viewing apparatus) is provided with a touch panel mounted onto the display section, so as to make it possible to conduct various kinds of operations therefrom. For instance, since the annotation function is highly demanded for the information viewing apparatus, an operation for inputting a memo message can be achieved by operating the touch panel concerned.
With respect to the touch panel abovementioned, for instance, Tokkai 2003-280812 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication) sets forth such a configuration, in regard to a touch-panel attached display device in which a first touch panel is arranged onto a display screen of a flexible paper display and a second touch panel is arranged below the flexible paper display abovementioned, that is provided with: a first position detecting section to detect a touch position touched by a designation body within the first touch panel, when the designation body designates a predetermined position within the paper display screen concerned; a second position detecting section to detect a touch position touched by the designation body within the second touch panel, when the designation body designates the predetermined position within the paper display screen concerned; and a control section that conducts a first processing corresponding to the detected result of the first position detecting section concerned, so as to establish a display status of the concerned display screen at a first display status corresponding to the touch position touched by the designation body and detected by the first position detecting section within the first touch panel, and conducts a second processing corresponding to the detected result of the second position detecting section concerned, so as to establish a display status of the concerned display screen at a second display status corresponding to the touch position touched by the designation body and detected by the second position detecting section within the second touch panel.
Further, with respect to the memo inputting operation to be conducted by employing the touch panel abovementioned, for instance, Tokkai 2007-279638 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication) sets forth such a navigation apparatus that is provided with: a display monitor to detect a plurality of touched positions; an inputting section to input the plurality of touched positions on the display screen of the display monitor; an implementation section to implement various kinds of operation to be determined depending on the plurality of touched positions inputted through the inputting section; a memo inputting section to input a memo from a memo inputting screen displayed on the display monitor; a memo storage section to store the memo inputted by the memo inputting section while correlating the memo with a facility; a facility selecting section to select the facility displayed on the display monitor; and a memo displaying section to display the memo correlated with the facility and stored in the memo storage section, when the facility concerned is selected by the facility selecting section; wherein, in such a case that two touched positions within a map currently displayed on the display screen are detected, and one of the two touched positions represents the display position of the facility and the other one of the two touched positions is made to move in a lower direction of the display screen concerned, the implementation section abovementioned displays the memo inputting screen, into which a memo, correlated with the facility currently displayed at said one of the two touched positions and stored into the memo storage section, is to be inputted.
When a memo is inputted into a document by using the touch panel as above-mentioned, specifically by using such a touch panel that allows the user to conduct the multi-touch operation, it is desirable that the information viewing apparatus is so constituted that an operation for displaying the memo screen, an operation for inputting the memo into the memo screen, an operation for storing information representing the memo inputted into the memo screen, etc., can be achieved through consecutive and simplified operations.
However, according to the conventional method, it has been impossible not only to make the information viewing apparatus display or evacuate such a memo screen that is easy to input, but also to make the information viewing apparatus store information inputted into the memo screen, by conducting simplified operations. Accordingly, the abovementioned disadvantages have impeded the flow of operations to be conducted by the user, resulting in deterioration of the operability of the information viewing apparatus concerned. Further, as well as the above, the same kinds of problems have been also arisen in such a case that the information viewing apparatus is made to display a screen for setting various kinds of functions therefrom.